Gloves!

A glove (Middle English from Old English glof) is a type of garment which covers the hand. Gloves have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb; if there is an opening but no covering sheath for each finger they are called "fingerless gloves". Fingerless gloves with one large opening rather than individual openings for each fingers are sometimes called gauntlets. Gloves which cover the entire hand but do not have separate finger openings or sheaths are called mittens. Mittens are warmer than gloves made of the same material because the extra air inside creates added insulation, and because fingers maintain their warmth better when they are touching.

There is also a type of fingerless mitten available which allows all the fingers of a hand to reside within a single defined cavity to maximize the benefits of body heat, whilst also allowing the individual fingers to be quickly freed for ease of movement. The usual design is for the mitten cavity to be stitched on one side only to the back of the fingerless glove, allowing it to be flipped over to transform the garment from one type of glove to another. Gloves can serve to protect and comfort the hands of the wearer against cold or heat, physical damage by friction, abrasion or chemicals, and disease; or in turn to provide a guard for what a bare hand should not touch. Latex, nitrile rubber or vinyl disposable gloves are often worn by healthcare professionals as hygiene and contamination protection measures. Police officers often wear them to work in crime scenes to prevent destroying evidence in the scene. Many criminals also wear these gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, which makes the crime investigation more difficult.

Fingerless gloves are useful for cold environments where dexterity is required that gloves would restrict. Cigarette smokers and church organists often use fingerless gloves. Some gloves include a gauntlet that extends partway up the arm. Cycling gloves for road racing or touring are usually fingerless.

Gloves have been made of many materials including cloth, knitted or felted wool, leather, rubber, latex, neoprene and metal (as in chain mail). Modern gloves made of kevlar protect the wearer from cuts. Gloves and gauntlets are also integral components of pressure suits and spacesuits such as the Apollo/Skylab A7L which went to the moon. Spacesuit gloves must combine extreme toughness and environmental protection with a degree of sensitivity and flexibility if the astronaut is to do any manual work.

Today gloves are made around the world. Most expensive women's fashion gloves are still made in France, with some made in Canada. For cheaper male gloves New York State, especially Gloversville, New York is still a world centre of glove manufacturing. More and more glove manufacturing is being done in East Asia, however.

Glove History

Gloves appear to be of great antiquity. According to some translations of Homer's The Odyssey, La'rtes is described as wearing gloves while walking in his garden so as to avoid the brambles. (Other translations, however, insist that Laertes pulled his long sleeves over his hands.) Herodotus, in The History of Herodotus (440 BC), tells how Leotychides was incriminated by a glove (gauntlet) full of silver that he received as a bribe. Among the Romans also there are occasional references to the use of gloves. According to Pliny the Younger (ca. 100), his uncle's shorthand writer wore gloves during the winter so as not to impede the elder Pliny's work.

Gloves are also used for fashion, ceremonial, and religious purposes. British and European Ladies in the 13th century began to wear gloves as fashion ornaments. They were made of linen and silk and sometimes reached to the elbow. It was not until the 16th century that they reached their greatest elaboration, however, when Queen Elizabeth I set the fashion for wearing them richly embroidered and jeweled.

Embroidered and jeweled gloves also formed part of the insignia of emperors and kings. Thus Matthew of Paris, in recording the burial of Henry II of England in 1189, mentions that be was buried in his coronation robes with a golden crown on his head and gloves on his hands. Gloves were also found on the hands of King John when his tomb was opened in 1797 and on those of King Edward I when his tomb was opened in 1774.

Pontifical gloves are liturgical ornaments used primarily by the pope, the cardinals, and bishops. They may be worn only at the celebration of mass. The liturgical use of gloves has not been traced beyond the beginning of the 10th century, and their introduction may have been due to a simple desire to keep the hands clean for the holy mysteries, but others suggest that they were adopted as part of the increasing pomp with which the Carolingian bishops were surrounding themselves. From the Frankish kingdom the custom spread to Rome, where liturgical gloves are first heard of in the earlier half of the 11th century.

Latex gloves, ubiquitous in surgery and forensics, were developed by the Australian Ansell company.

Types of gloves

Commercial and industrial

Barbed wire handler's gloves

Chainsaw gloves

firemen's gauntlets

Medical gloves

Welder's gloves

Gloves Sport and recreational gloves

Archer's glove

Baseball glove or catcher's mitt: in baseball, the players in the field wear gloves to help them to catch the ball and prevent injury to their hands.

Billiards glove

Boxingglove: a specialized padded mitten

Cricket gloves

The wicket keeper wears large webbed gloves, similar to those used in baseball.

The batsmen wear gloves with heavy padding on the back, to protect the fingers from being struck with the ball.

Cycling gloves

Driving gloves - often leather to improve grip on the steering wheel.

Eating glove

Football - Goalkeeper's gloves

Fencing glove

Falconry glove

Gardening glove

Ice hockey mitt

Riding gloves

Motorcycling gloves

Scuba diving gloves : cotton gloves; good abrasion but no thermal protection wet gloves; made of neoprene and allowing water entry dry gloves; made of rubber with a latex wrist seal to prevent water entry

Yachting

Wired glove

Oven gloves - or Oven mitts, are used when cooking

Washing glove: a tool for washing the body (one's own, or of a child, a patient, a lover).

Wheelchair gloves - for users of manual Wheelchairs

Power Glove - an alternate controller for use with the Nintendo Entertainment System.